November 2026 at the Movies: 11 New Cinema Releases

Eleven films, eleven different reasons to go

A monster returns, a new witch discovers her power, and Hollywood revisits its own history. November's eleven films lead to very different kinds of screen experience.

Godzilla Minus Zero — November 3 in Japan; November 6 in North America

Godzilla Minus Zero opens in Japan on November 3 and across North America on November 6. Takashi Yamazaki returns as writer, director and visual effects lead. Two years after Minus One, a recovering Japan faces another catastrophe. That timing gives the sequel a more interesting starting point than simply finding something bigger to destroy.

What does rebuilding mean if everything can be taken away again? The returning Shikishima family gives that question a human center. The campaign also highlights sequences made for IMAX. Scale matters, but so does the space around the people inside it. If the first film drew you in through its survivors, that continuing connection is the reason to follow this one. You do not need decades of Godzilla continuity; Minus One is the relevant starting point.

The Cat in the Hat — international rollout from November 4; North America November 6

The Cat in the Hat reaches North American theaters on November 6, with its international rollout beginning on November 4. Bill Hader voices the Cat in an animated adventure directed by Erica Rivinoja and Alessandro Carloni. His assignment is to help Gabby and Sebastian, two siblings struggling with a move to a new town. His magical hat is at stake, too.

The appealing contrast is between that familiar childhood worry and an imagination that refuses to stay inside ordinary rooms. The trailer turns an attempt to reassure the children into a burst of visual invention. Matt Berry, Quinta Brunson and Giancarlo Esposito are among the voice cast. For families, the question is whether the Cat's chaos can make an unfamiliar place feel less frightening. This animated film does not continue the earlier live-action adaptation; that film is not homework.

I Play Rocky — November 6 in selected US theaters

I Play Rocky starts in selected US theaters on November 6 before expanding later in the month. Peter Farrelly directs Anthony Ippolito as the young Sylvester Stallone. The struggle happens before Rocky becomes a familiar movie: Stallone wants his screenplay produced, but insists on playing the lead. Selling the story and surrendering the part would be two very different victories.

That makes this a companion to the original film rather than another chapter about an established boxing hero. This underdog is fighting to get in front of a camera. Matt Dillon and AnnaSophia Robb join the cast; Peter Gamble wrote the screenplay. The interesting tension is between the deal that seems practical and the decision that makes the project personal. The release comes around Rocky's fiftieth anniversary, but the attraction is the gamble behind the celebration.

Ebenezer — November 13 in US theaters

Ebenezer opens in US theaters on November 13. Johnny Depp plays Scrooge in Ti West's version of A Christmas Carol, alongside Rupert Grint, Andrea Riseborough, Daisy Ridley and Ian McKellen. Dickens gives a filmmaker a familiar structure, but that structure does not settle the atmosphere.

Scrooge's encounters can feel comforting, threatening or strangely intimate depending on how the visitors and their surroundings are presented. What kind of ghost story will West find inside a tale audiences already recognize? The current campaign calls the film simply Ebenezer, a useful name to know when checking local showtimes. This is the seasonal choice for viewers drawn to a familiar classic in the hands of a distinct director.

Bitter Christmas — November 13 in New York and Los Angeles; wider US release November 25

Bitter Christmas begins in New York and Los Angeles on November 13 and expands across the United States on November 25. Pedro Almodóvar's film has already opened in Spain; November marks a new US engagement, not a world premiere. Two interwoven stories connect an advertising director in 2004 with a filmmaker writing in 2026. Between them lies the uneasy passage from a life being lived to a life turned into fiction. Bárbara Lennie and Leonardo Sbaraglia are among the cast.

Despite its title, this is no conventional festive comedy. The attraction is creativity and its emotional cost, particularly what happens when an artist borrows from other people's lives. Once a personal experience becomes a story, who controls its meaning? That makes it an intriguing counterpart to I Play Rocky. One film asks what it takes to get a movie made; the other asks what making fiction takes from life.

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping — November 20 in North America

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping arrives in North America on November 20. Francis Lawrence directs, with Joseph Zada playing a younger Haymitch. The story begins 24 years before The Hunger Games, at the reaping for the fiftieth Games: the Second Quarter Quell. Suzanne Collins's novel provides a new route into Panem's history.

The setting moves the question beyond whether Panem is cruel. We know the system; what matters is what it does to people before they become the figures we recognize. The campaign also emphasizes that this is the franchise's first installment filmed for IMAX. The expanded frame is a way of presenting the story, not a promise that every scene will have the same shape. For returning viewers, this is a prequel centered on a character they know. Newcomers will get useful context for Haymitch and his world from the original Hunger Games.

Minotaur — November 5 in Germany; November 20 in the US and Canada; November 27 in the UK and Ireland

Minotaur reaches German theaters on November 5, US and Canadian theaters on November 20, and the UK and Ireland on November 27. Andrey Zvyagintsev, director of Leviathan and Loveless, follows businessman Gleb in Russia in 2022. Pressure builds at work and at home as the political situation grows increasingly unstable.

This is a more concentrated threat than the month's monsters and magical worlds. How long can someone believe he controls his private life when the wider world refuses to remain outside it? The film reworks material from Claude Chabrol's The Unfaithful Wife in a different social setting. That connection offers a way into its premise without revealing where it leads. For anyone drawn to a pressure thriller about behavior, power and relationships, it belongs beside the bigger releases.

Hexed — November 25 in US theaters

Hexed opens in the United States on November 25. Disney's animated story follows Billie, a teenager whose newly discovered magic carries her from suburbia into Hexe, a realm of witches. Hailee Steinfeld voices Billie, while Rashida Jones plays her cautious mother, Alice. They must face the unfamiliar world together. Fawn Veerasunthorn and Jason Hand direct, with Josie Trinidad as co-director.

Disney's filmmakers describe the magic as tactile and influenced by nature rather than a uniform flash of light. That visual idea meets a familiar family tension: one person wants to rush forward; the other wants to keep things safe. Jodie Foster and Walton Goggins are also in the voice cast. For a family outing, the mother-and-daughter partnership is the clearest difference from the Cat's mission earlier in the month. Both films use an impossible world to approach an ordinary feeling.

Focker-In-Law — November 25 in US theaters

Focker-In-Law arrives in US theaters on November 25. Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro return, but the family's old suspicion has moved to another generation. Greg's grown son Henry, played by Skyler Gisondo, wants to marry Olivia. Ariana Grande plays the prospective newcomer, a former FBI hostage negotiator. Greg is suspicious; Jack is charmed.

That reversal gives the reunion a reason to exist. Greg now faces someone entering the family from the other side of the power dynamic he once knew. John Hamburg directs after co-writing the earlier Meet the Parents films. Owen Wilson, Teri Polo and Blythe Danner also return. The appeal remains uncomfortable family comedy: people convinced they can read everyone else keep misreading the room.

All of a Sudden — November 25 in US theaters

All of a Sudden opens in the United States on November 25, after earlier engagements in France and Japan. Ryusuke Hamaguchi's drama brings together Marie-Lou, played by Virginie Efira, and Mari, played by Tao Okamoto. Marie-Lou runs an elder-care facility and wants listening and dignity to shape its work. Mari is a Japanese theater director living with cancer. Their friendship joins the two women's struggles.

At 196 minutes, this asks for more time than a quick evening diversion. That duration gives care room to become a relationship rather than simply a problem for someone to solve. Hamaguchi directed Drive My Car, and this premise again invites attention to people speaking, listening and changing through contact. Amid a release calendar full of spectacle, it offers a deliberate change of pace.

The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth — IMAX from November 25; Netflix December 23

The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth begins its announced IMAX engagement on November 25, ahead of its Netflix release on December 23. The theatrical run depends on participating cinemas in each market. Brad Pitt returns as Cliff, now working as a fixer in 1977 Los Angeles. Quentin Tarantino wrote the film; David Fincher directs.

That handover is the main attraction: a familiar character passes into another filmmaker's hands. Elizabeth Debicki, Scott Caan, Carla Gugino and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II join the cast. Cliff's move from stunt work to solving Hollywood's problems points toward a crime story rather than a simple return to the earlier film. The large-screen option arrives in November; the Netflix release follows in December.

Which screen experience is worth your time?

November's choice is more interesting than deciding which sequel to see. You can follow survivors through another catastrophe, watch a film fight its way into existence, or spend more than three hours with two women learning to listen to each other. The real question is which kind of screen experience you want to make time for.